A little mercy goes a long way
by half-demon priestess
Summary: Itachi has just killed off his clan. Leaving the village he finds someone who is in desperate need of help. When this person turns out to have the sharingan how can he not take him with him? -on hiatus-
1. Mercy from regret perhaps?

A little mercy goes a long way…

Chapter one: Mercy from Regret perhaps?

Itachi Uchiha walked passively through the empty dark streets of his village. It was nearly midnight and everyone was asleep, if they hadn't he would have been bold enough to walk out in the open covered in his families blood. By the time they found out about the massacre and Sasuke told everyone what happened he would be long gone out of the reach of hunter ninja.

THWACK

Itachi paused at the sound he frowned slightly. He knew the sound of beatings well. Curious Itachi headed towards the sounds, he turned the corner into a dark alley to see two middle aged villager men kicking a small boy around. 'What disgusting vermin.'

Itachi pulled out two kunai and threw them at the two unaware men, they hit there mark going straight through them into the wall. The two dropped to the ground and the small boy flinched as he was sprayed with blood.

Itachi calmly walked over to the boy and checked his wounds. After years of being a ninja he could tell that they were too serious for the boy to live for more than a few more minutes. It was impossible to tell what colour his hair was under layers of mud and blood, the boy coughed and moaned in pain. Weak and shaking he picked himself up enough to look at Itachi.

Itachi's eyes widened as he saw it, not only should this boy be able to move but his eyes… They were deep red, his pupils were silted like a cats and a single comma mark in his right eye… 'This boy is Uchiha and… the Kyubi container Naruto Uzumaki… it's impossible…isn't it?' Naruto coughed again and blood dripped from his mouth. He didn't die though, Itachi watched in awe as his wounds healed before his eyes. Naruto soon passed out and began to fall to the ground; Itachi caught him and listened to his quite breathing for the first time in his life stunned.

In the background a cat knocked a pot down bringing Itachi from his thoughts.

"Alright then, this changes my plan's a bit…" He made a few rapid hand signs and two shadow clones of himself appeared. "You know what to do…" They nodded and headed off in opposite directions. Itachi however lifted Naruto up onto his shoulder and ran out of the village double time.

END CHAPTER


	2. Savior or Captor?

Chapter two: Savior or captor?

Naruto slowly drifted into consciousness feeling warm and comfortable. He remembered passing out after that person saved him but where was he? The hospital was the obvious choice but it wasn't warm or comfy there…

Naruto opened his eyes and looked at the light blue ceiling.

"You're awake…" Naruto pulled himself up to look at the person speaking; a tired smile crossed his face when he recognised the person who saved him. "Stay in bed, you took quiet a beating and you shouldn't be moving yet." He turned away, opened a scroll and began to read. When Naruto didn't moved he raised and eyebrow but didn't turn to look. "Go to sleep…" Naruto's smile widened and he snuggled into the bed.

_Meanwhile in Konoha: _

_The first Itachi clone snuck past the ANBU guarding Konoha's records easily and worked his way though the rows of books until he reached the section that had the records of all the Uchiha's in the village's history. Marriages, people extradited from the clan and their children were all written down here to monitor everyone who had the possibility of manifesting the sharingan._

'_Hmm… Strange the only person who married outside the clan in the last twenty years was Naomi Uchiha… I've never heard anyone talking about her having a child; I know she died the day of the Kyubi attack though…'_

_As Itachi searched through the file he found entire pages made to be blank because of genjutsu. Itachi raised an eyebrow at the level of genjutsu before quickly dispensing of it. He memorised the details before putting them back where they were supposed to be and dispersing so his real self could get the information he'd gathered._

_The second Itachi clone used his chakra to sneak through to the Hokage's office by crawling on the ceiling. It was the safe he was after. Itachi, was a perfectionist and if Naruto was going to stay with him, there was no way he could stomach having a weakling hanging around with him. Between Sasuke's excessive complaining about him at the academy and his own time in ANBU guarding him Itachi knew that the teachers at the academy did everything they could to hinder his dream of being a ninja. If Itachi loved anything it was rubbing peoples noses in their failure, he would make sure Naruto became a great ninja. Itachi smirked a little at that thought but of course it was hidden by his high collar. _

_When he reached the safe he gracefully landed on the floor noiselessly. The security was noteworthy but hardly a chance against the 13 year old ANBU captain. The Itachi clone deftly took a majority of the scrolls ignoring the traps before pausing. In the back a locked, black box sat. Curiously the Itachi clone went over it. He blew the dust off the box and noticed a name engraved on it. Itachi's eyes widened as he read the name._

'_Naruto… Guess this means I have to take it…' Itachi sighed and placed the box with the scrolls in the bag. The Itachi clone then ran out of the safe and closed the door before jumping out the window and running over the rooftops. As Itachi reached the gate he cursed silently when he saw the person outside it. _

'_Why, did it have to be him!?' Itachi cursed as the Green Beast of Konoha in all his green spandex glory was doing push ups with his thumbs and singing. Itachi shuddered as Guy hit an extremely high note. 'I need a distraction otherwise I'll get caught!'_

_Itachi thought it over for a few moments before deciding to take a leaf out of Naruto's book. He made a series of hand signs to create a genjutsu that would rock the villages very core. Itachi wished he would be able to see it all but he needed to take the scrolls. At least he would be able to see Guy's face when it began._

"_Flaming turkey's of doom!!!" Guy looked to where the random scream came from as did the now awake guards Izumo and Kotetsu. Their eyes nearly popped out of their heads as they saw a very naked Hiashi Hyuga running down the street. Guy soon recovered from his shock and began crying dramatically._

"_Hiashi it is wonderful to see you embrace your youth!" He face then became serious. "However, you must put your clothes on immediately!" The jounin went into full sprint chasing Hiashi. The image just ran faster and ignored Guy's protests. Guy stopped in his tracks when he came upon another naked image of Hiashi, this one doing the chicken dance while singing the 'I have a lovely bunch of Coconuts.'_

_As more Hiashi images appeared no one noticed Itachi running through the gate. Itachi's lip twitched as he ran knowing exactly what mayhem he had caused._

Back with Itachi:

Itachi's lip twitched as he received the memories from his second clone, he honestly didn't know whether to frown because people would think he had a sense of humour or to smile because he had just ruined Hiashi Hyuga's sense of dignity. Before he could make up his mind though…

"What ya doing?" Itachi jumped.

"How long have you been there!?" Itachi's eye twitching was the only sign his face showed but on the inside he was screaming at himself for being surprised by a seven year old, a loud and obnoxious seven year old at that. Naruto just smiled at him.

"Three hours… Why?" Itachi twitched again.

"Three hours!?"

"Yep, you've been staring at that wall ever since I woke up. Where you trying to look though the walls?"

"Naruto, what time is it?" The boy smiled again.

"Nine…"

"O'clock!?" Itachi picked the boy up by the shirt and walked out of the room into the hotels corridors.

"Where are we going?" Itachi lifted Naruto up so they were eye to eye.

"You are going to take a bath!" Naruto's eyes widened.

"No, I don't want to lose my protective coating of dirt!"

"To bad, you're going to be clean!"

As Naruto struggled for freedom, Itachi dragged him to the hotels bath house. He ignored to boys cries of protest and chucked him into the bath. Itachi picked up a bar of soap and chuckled quietly.

"No, please don't!" Itachi just shook his head and ignored the boy's screams of protest. 'You'd think this was worse than being beaten by drunken thugs…'

What Itachi hadn't realised was that this is a shared bath and that it was an unspoken rule that women used the bath in the morning. As he struggled to get Naruto clean, a group of women from entered to see a very strange sight.

A very vexed Itachi wrestled to keep Naruto in the tub while attempting to get his hair to its original blonde colour.

"When was the last time you took a bath boy?" Naruto calmed and shrugged.

"When old man Sandaime gave a mission to ANBU to give me one, eight months ago." Itachi shook his head.

"It should have been an A rank mission…" Naruto shrugged.

"That's what they get for trying to make me get clean!" Itachi glared at him.

"Ahem!" The two turned to look at the group of women and sweat dropped.

"Uh… I can explain!" Itachi sweated, these women had the same look on their faces as his mother did when he told Sasuke that Santa doesn't exist. Mikoto Uchiha had been a very dangerous woman when crossed.

"There is no need…" Naruto and Itachi looked at each other nervously. "You poor dear, if you don't know how to look after your brother you should ask someone with experience! We see it all the time when villages are ransacked you know, you lose your parents and suddenly you have to look after your siblings when you don't have a clue how…" The two boys nodded dumbly, neither was stupid enough to argue with a mob of mothers. They soon pushed Itachi out of the bathhouse assuring him that Naruto would be clean within fifteen minutes. Not wanting to argue Itachi went to get Naruto some better clothes.

When Itachi returned he didn't recognise Naruto for a moment. The boy was completely drenched but his hair had gone from a dirty brown to a vivid blond, his skin was very lightly tanned and the whisker marks on his face where now blatantly apparent against his skin. He also looked very-very displeased with being clean. Itachi quickly thanked the women and got Naruto dried and dressed with the promise of a large breakfast before they got going.

At the Hyuga compound:

Hinata walked down the unfriendly hallways of her family's compound with a spring in her step, she cradled a box in her hands like her life depended on it. The branch family members that saw her stepped back unnerved at seeing the young heiress happy.

Hinata opened the sliding door to the outside and took a deep breath before opening her eyes. Her calm demeanour shattered when she saw her father doing handstands on the lawn naked. Her face went red and Hinata's scream woke up everyone in a miles radius to have more peoples screams follow.

"Hinata, why are you screaming?" Neji looked at his cousin concerned, he may hate the Main branch but Hinata was harmless. Hinata pointed to the yard shaking. Neji looked in the direction she was pointing and his eyes bulged.

"Uncle Hiashi, what are you DOING?" Neji screeched as he pulled Hinata away and covered her eyes with his hands.

Hiashi Hyuga tore through the halls furious at being woken up at such an ungodly hour.

"What is IT!?" Hiashi halted as he looked at his lawn. "Oh god…" With a cry of indignity he ran to the impostor ready to jyuuken their ass into the next century. Unfortunately for Hiashi his hand passed right through the image. Determined to rid the world of the image he continued to try until an ANBU grabbed his arms and pulled him back. Hiashi glared at the cat masked ANBU and tried to shake him off.

"The Hokage wishes to see you Hyuga-sama, there have been serious breaches in the village's protection." Hiashi nodded and followed the ANBU. Neji followed and pulled Hinata along with him to get away from the image. The eight year old boy felt he would need years of therapy to counter what he had just seen.

Sarutobi sat at his desk in the traditional Hokage robes; he had his divination ball in front of him attempting to see. When Hiashi arrived he finally gave up and addressed the Clan Heads.

"As you may have noticed there has been a serious disturbance…" Hiashi looked around and noticed Fugaku's absence.

"Where is Fugaku? If that bastard thinks he can skip clan meetings now I'll…" Sarutobi glared at him until Hiashi became silent.

"Fugaku Uchiha is dead; the entire Uchiha clan was murdered by the heir to the clan Itachi Uchiha last night… Well, save for his younger brother Sasuke who is currently hospitalised." There was a hushed silence in the room.

Hinata and Neji peaked into the meeting through the doors crack, Hinata began to shiver.

"There all… dead..." Neji glared at her.

"Hinata if you can't be quiet leave so I can listen in!" He whispered angrily. Hinata lowered her head and held her box in a near death grip.

"Sorry Neji…"

Sarutobi continued and frowned. "Itachi also stole numerous scrolls from my vault including the box containing Arashi's legacy scrolls; he killed to civilians and…" Sarutobi closed his eyes trying to get the words to come out. "He kidnapped Naruto Uzumaki…" The clan heads all began debating over the matter and cursing Itachi's name. Sarutobi sighed and rubbed his forehead. 'I haven't gotten a headache this bad since I was reinstated the night the Kyubi attacked.'

Hinata backed away from the door until she bumped into the wall behind her. She felt tears forming and let them fall to the ground. The Hokage could have just said that the world was coming to an end; it meant the same to her. 'Naruto's gone… that bastard took him…'

"Hinata…?" Hinata closed her eyes and ignored Neji; she didn't want to believe that Naruto was gone.


End file.
